


Keeping all your hopes alive (the rest of you has died)

by jonks



Series: Troubled Memories [2]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Major character death - Freeform, Platonic Relationships, Sad Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-24 03:47:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30066183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jonks/pseuds/jonks
Summary: Ranboo felt the grief weigh down his chest as he walked, knowing what the Egg had done to them. To their home.
Series: Troubled Memories [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2210985
Comments: 5
Kudos: 12





	Keeping all your hopes alive (the rest of you has died)

7 years later…

Ranboo walked down the Prime Path for the first time in five years. The wood had begun to decay, his shoes sometimes breaking through the path as he walked. As he went he swung his hoe from side to side, trying to rid the path of the red vines covering every inch of it. 

He felt the grief weigh down his chest as he walked, knowing what the Egg had done to them. To their home. 

He was one of the very few that had managed to escape the expansion of the Egg, had fled before it took him over too. He had had to leave his friends behind, had to watch them become corrupted and slowly lose themselves. Even now he had to be on his guard; Tubbo could be anywhere, waiting for a new person to induct into the Eggpire. 

They had thought that the Eggpire had ended when they’d gotten rid of Bad, but the Egg had expanded its inner circle more than anyone had realized. Eventually it had done exactly what it had planned; their home had been covered in red vines, their friends had been corrupted and changed, and those that were left had had to flee or risk losing themselves. 

And then there were the ones that weren’t able to be corrupted. The ones that were like Tommy, who hadn’t felt anything when in contact with the stupid Egg. Those people hadn’t had time to plan a getaway. They had been taken out of their beds in the dead of night and locked in the Prison. The only reason Ranboo hadn’t been taken too was because he could teleport and had managed to outrun them. Even now, Ant stood outside the Prison, eyes on the horizon, making sure no one escaped from inside Pandora’s Box. 

His feet automatically took him to where the Community House had once stood. Now all that was in that spot were the ruins of the first home, and the main meeting area for the Eggpire. He could tell that there was no one there, and decided to take a risk and venture inside. 

There wasn’t much to see if he was being perfectly honest. If he hadn’t known that people were living there, he would’ve assumed it had been abandoned. There were no signs of life, just red. Lots of red. There were posters on the ruined walls, all with slogans to join the Eggpire. The words were lost though; there was no one left to recruit. 

He moved on from the site, his heart feeling heavy as he walked. Eret’s castle was more or less intact, though there were vines running through the walls and on the ground. All of the arches out front had either been destroyed or had crumbled with age, and the beacons had all been extinguished. Ranboo didn’t dare venture inside though, because he knew that the castle was now where each of the Eggpire members resided. The castle was the one of the most well-kept buildings in the entire area, and even still it was in complete disarray. The flags fluttered in the gentle wind, though they were full of holes and all the colors had faded. What had once been a beautiful build was now a ruin, a shell of what it had once been. 

Where Church Prime had once been now stood a shrine to the Egg, the original building completely taken down. The Egg had told Bad that there were to be no other distractions, that nothing could overshadow the Eggpire. So the Holy Lands had been wiped away, only to reside in the minds of those that had once believed in it.  
Then there was the Egg itself. People had always wondered what was inside the Egg as it grew, and to most it was still a mystery.

But Ranboo knew the truth. He knew what the Egg’s purpose had been. 

The Egg hadn’t had anything inside it at all. The speculations were all wrong. Instead, the Egg had been preparing to hold someone inside it when it had reached the appropriate size. The thing had grown stronger and harder as it aged, and when its final stage was complete it was hard as bedrock and just as unbreakable. It was meant to contain one person, and one person only. 

When Bad had finally managed to induct George into their ranks, they had used him to lure Dream XD down to earth. They had used Dream XD’s love for George against him, and had managed to get him trapped inside the Egg. No one had believed that a god could be blinded by such a mortal emotion, but even now, if you got close enough to the Egg, you could still here the immortal god screaming for his lost love, for the man that had died to Ranboo’s own hand. 

He passed the burned down remains of L’Targay and the few homes that still partially stood beside the Prime Path. He wasn’t even paying attention to where he was walking. He was too lost in thought to focus on the pathway. But as his feet carried him over the crest of the hill, to the house that still sat there, his mind cleared and his eyes focused on the oak double doors set into the mountain. 

All of the flowers had wilted and died years before, and weeds had completely covered the front lawn and the hill above. The sign above the entryway was hanging by one nail, and one of the doors had been kicked in and swung on its hinges. One look inside told Ranboo that there was nothing of value left in Tommy’s home, that it had been raided to emptiness. But despite that, there were no vines touching the house. The Egg had spread everywhere but here, had taken over every inch of land but this one small area. When the Egg had taken Tubbo, the boy had come here and tried to destroy everything, but there was something either inside of him or some other force that prevented him from destroying his best friend’s house. So he broke the bench instead. The bench that he and Tommy had sat on after all the wars - where they went after the victories and defeats to just listen to music and reflect – was broken in half, laid in shambles beside the path, never to be used again. The symbol of hope and unity that it had once been was reduced to ruins. 

But Tommy’s house remained intact. It was almost as though Tommy was rebelling against the Egg, even in death. Something was keeping the vines away, and Ranboo wasn’t going to question it. If there was one thing that should remain untouched by the Egg, it was this.

Ranboo tried to find an allium flower to plant in the grass outside Tommy’s house, but everything that had once been beautiful was gone. All that remained was tainted land and corrupted followers. 

He looked over the hill to the areas beyond and noticed the building still standing tall in the distance. He felt his feet begin to move again, and as he walked he tried to ignore the red vines covering all the old towers. He tried to remember what it used to look like, before everything fell into disarray. Blue skies, friends playing pranks and chasing after each other, the sound of music discs being played drifting through the air. Ranboo used to think that this place was perfect, that nothing would ever completely destroy it. 

He was so wrong. 

Before he knew it, he was walking through the gate and toward the front entrance of the Big Innit Hotel. Nobody had rented a room there in years, not since the Eggpire had taken over, and there were Do Not Enter signs plastered all over the walls. The red had faded to an almost brown color and every so often the stone would crumble, but the building was still standing. Most of the windows were broken, and the grass was so overgrown with weeds that you couldn’t walk through them without tripping. And yet – aside from the Prison – it was probably the best maintained structure to be found. 

And there, still standing in the front entrance, was Sam Nook. 

Seven years later, and he was still waiting for Tommy to come home. 

They had tried to explain that Tommy wasn’t coming back, that he had died and would not be back to manage the hotel. They had all been afraid of how he would take the news, had put off telling him for so long that eventually their guilt was what forced them to tell him. And instead of breaking down the way they all thought he would, Sam Nook had instead just walked to the entrance of the hotel and stood there, eyes forward and straight-faced, refusing to hear their pleas for him to leave with them. 

Now Ranboo approached him, hoping that he could convince him to finally leave this place. 

“Hello Sam Nook,” he said quietly. Sam Nook looked the same as he had five years ago when Ranboo had first left. He hadn’t aged a day. Ranboo however, knew he looked much different. The white in his face had gotten lighter and the black had gotten darker. Ever since he’d gotten rid of Dream’s control, the green of his one eye had diminished greatly and the red one had dulled, making it look much less menacing. Those last five years had been hard on Ranboo, had caused him a lot of tears. The number of scars on his cheeks had only increased, despite his attempts to prevent them. But some days, he couldn’t hold the tears in. Not when he remembered everything and everyone that he’d lost. Not as he slowly started to forget what L’Manberg was, who Tubbo had been. It was only thanks to his memory books that he still had any information on them, and even now he questioned the reliability of those books. They still contained smiley faces in them, the marks of tampering that made him unable to determine what was real and what had been changed. His cheeks were sunken in, though he ate well and kept himself busy. It was like his body had lost the will to look healthy, and decided to reflect on the outside how Ranboo was feeling on the inside. Dull. Tired. Blue. 

He wished he had some blue, but it had all run out when Ghostbur disappeared. They hadn’t been able to acquire any more. 

He had grown even more over the years, and now towered over everyone at a whopping 9 feet tall. If Tubbo had still been with him, they would have laughed hysterically at the height difference. Overall, he just looked older, more tired. He had seen and been through too much. 

“HELLO RANBOO. HOW ARE YOU TODAY? IT HAS BEEN SO LONG SINCE OUR LAST ENCOUNTER.”

“I’m good Sam Nook. I’ve missed you. How’s the hotel doing?” It was clear that the hotel had seen better days, but Ranboo wasn’t really sure what else to say. There wasn’t much else that Sam Nook talked about. 

“THE HOTEL HAS BEEN QUIET LATELY. I AM SIMPLY WAITING FOR TOMMYINNIT TO RETURN SO WE CAN ARRANGE REPAIRS AND IMPROVEMENTS.”

“Sam Nook…” Ranboo felt on the verge of tears, though he had to hold them in, knowing the pain they would cause him if he allowed them to fall. “I need you to listen to me Sam Nook. Tommy. Is. Not. Coming. Back. He is dead, he died seven years ago and he is not going to come back to the hotel. I wish I could tell you otherwise, but this is the truth and I need you to realize that.” He took a step toward the man and put a hand on his shoulder, trying to make the man see his desperation. “Please Sam Nook, come with me. I don’t want to leave you here, waiting for someone who’s never going to show. Tommy wouldn’t want you to wait for him either. He would want you to be safe and come with me. He loved you Sam Nook, and he wouldn’t want to see you still standing here after all these years.”

“I APPRECIATE YOUR CONCERN RANBOO, BUT TOMMY WILL BE BACK SOON AND THEN YOU CAN SPEAK TO HIM ABOUT MY EMPLOYMENT. UNTIL THEN, I WILL STAY HERE AND LOOK AFTER HIS HOTEL.”

“Sam Nook _please_. It’s dangerous, there’s nothing left for you here. But if you come with me, you can be with friends, you can be _safe_.”

“I APPRECIATE YOUR CONCERN RANBOO, BUT TOMMY WILL BE BACK SOON AND THEN YOU CAN SPEAK TO HIM ABOUT MY EMPLOYMENT. UNTIL THEN, I WILL STAY HERE AND LOOK AFTER HIS HOTEL.” Ranboo could see in the way that Sam Nook stood that he wouldn’t go, wouldn’t leave the hotel to be destroyed by the Egg despite his pleading. So Ranboo did the only thing he could think to do. 

He wrapped his arms around the man, giving him one final hug. 

Ranboo wasn’t going to come back. There was nothing here anymore. He had read the history books, knew the backstory to this place, and all he could think of were Wilbur’s final words. This place truly was an unfinished symphony, doomed to forever remain unfinished. 

This was his final goodbye.

Ranboo forced himself to walk away from the hotel and up the path to look over Skeppy and Bad’s mansion. Another thing that used to be beautiful that had been ruined by those vines. It had been the first thing to fall in the Egg’s takeover and had only gotten worse over time. It wasn’t that the building had fallen down or been physically destroyed, it had just… changed. The red from the vines had seeped into each of the white blocks and stained them crimson. There were pits of lava all over the property to keep the Egg warm and any sign of life that had once been there have wilted and died. The only life that could exist there were the vines and the occupants of the home. 

The mansion still resided in the constant shadow of Pandora’s Box and in the distance he could see Ant standing in the front entrance to the Prison with his trident in one hand and a shield in his other. Not that anyone would try to get in. Ranboo wanted to desperately, to try and get his trapped friends out, but he knew that Puffy would never forgive him if he got hurt. Besides, the only two people that knew how to work the Prison was already a prisoner of sorts, and the other was still locked in the main cell. 

Ranboo wished he could see Sam, but the Warden had been trapped in the Prison ever since Ranboo left. When Bad and Ant had told him to leak the secrets for how the Prison worked and Sam had refused, they had locked him inside, only to be interacted with when they needed to use the Prison for transporting or visiting prisoners. And no one dared to go into Dream’s cell for fear of him escaping. Ranboo was pretty sure that Dream was the only person the Egg was afraid of, so to risk using him for their own gain was out of the question. 

Since the main cell was already occupied, his friends were then placed in the smaller holding cells. At least there they could yell through the bars at each other, while Dream sat in solitude year after year. 

The few people that had managed to escape would send spies into the country a couple times each year to see how things had changed, but the first time they had regrouped had been a shock to their systems. Ranboo had gotten out first and had tried to guide his friends to safety, but a few of them had fallen behind or been caught and hadn’t made it out. When they were a safe distance away they had counted their numbers to see who had gotten out. 

And when Ranboo hadn’t seen Tubbo in the mix of people, his heart almost shattered in his chest. He had run all the way back to L’Manberg to get his friend out only to see him being pulled along the Prime Path by Ant and Bad. His arms were held behind his back and there was a hand on the back of his neck, forcing his head down and pushing him forward. Ranboo had followed them all the way to the Egg, into the depths of the evil that was coursing through their land. But the Egg had sensed Ranboo’s presence, had known he was there as Tubbo was knocked to his knees in front of the thing. As the vines wrapped around him, as the Egg whispered into his mind all the terrible lies it could think of. And Ranboo watched as the friend he had known slowly lost himself. As his eyes transitioned from their beautiful blue to a deep red, as his clothes lost their color and became dull. As everything that made Tubbo himself was stripped away. 

That’s when the tears had really started. When he realized that his friend was lost. 

They had tried to catch him but against teleportation they didn’t stand a chance. When he’d gotten back to his friends he had collapsed on the ground and screamed as his tears fell. Sapnap had run up to him and asked if he was hurt, but Ranboo hadn’t been able to form words between the pain and the horror of what he’d seen. 

When he’d calmed down, he took a good look at who had made it out. Aside from himself, he saw Sapnap, Callahan, Foolish, Niki, Purpled, Connor, and Karl. So few people. Which had meant that Sam, Puffy, Hannah, Ponk, HBomb, George, Punz, Eret, Fundy, Jack, Quackity, Phil, Ghostbur, and Techno were all stuck in L’Manberg.

It was a few months later that they sent Purpled back to the country on a stealth mission and he had returned with the news they were all dreading:

Puffy, Sam, HBomb, Jack, and Fundy had been thrown in the Prison when the Egg had realized that it could not control them and had ordered Bad to detain them. Punz, George, Eret, Ponk, Hannah, Quackity, and Phil had all been corrupted and joined Tubbo on the side of the Eggpire. 

And then Purpled had given perhaps the worst news. 

While he had been there, spying on the citizens, he had witnessed something he had never thought would occur. An execution he never thought he’d see. 

Purpled described that where the election podium had been was now a man kneeling in the dirt. His wrists had been shackled together, the chain connecting to a metal loop stuck in the dirt. His head had hung low, his pink hair cut to just above his pointed ears. _So he couldn’t hide his face_ , is what Purpled had said. But Ranboo knew they had cut his hair just because they could, to shame the man. They had taken his cloak and left him to freeze in the open air for a couple days to show off that they had captured the second most powerful man in the area. And sitting in front of him, just out of arm’s reach, had been his crown; broken in half, a symbol of what had been done to the man. 

They had stripped Techno of all his belongings, had learned from the first attempted execution to make sure that he had no totems on him, had nothing that could have saved him. They had left the Blood God utterly defenseless, at the mercy of his captors. 

And then they’d brought out Phil. 

He hadn’t been corrupted yet. The Egg wanted Phil to witness what was going to happen, how badly they were going to break him. They had dragged him kicking and screaming until he was standing in front of Techno, the boy he’d looked after for years, had kept safe from harm, had fought with and protected with his life. The boy that was going to die in front of his eyes. 

Bad had apparently laughed, said that this was what the Egg demanded, that the Blood God be silenced once and for all. Ranboo was sure that Bad had made some kind of speech, but Purpled had been too emotional to retell it. He simply said that Bad had lifted his axe, and with the sound of Phil screaming at Techno to fight, to try and escape, to do _something _, he had brought the axe down in one clean sweep.__

____

____

The Blood God was gone, and the voices had been silenced. 

That was when Phil – weeping and scrambling for Techno’s body – had been dragged away to the Egg, the last one to be corrupted. Purpled had finally broken down and sobbed into Ranboo’s arms, burning holes in his shirt and stinging his skin, but he just let it happen. The boy had needed the comfort. 

When Techno died was also when Ghostbur had disappeared. No one knew where he’d gone to, just that after that day none of them ever saw him again. Ranboo thought it was because Techno and Phil were two of his only friends, and after they were gone, there was nothing left for Ghostbur. He wished the ghost would come back. He was in desperate need of some blue. 

Ranboo continued to walk around the remains of L’Manberg and the Dream SMP, seeing nothing but charred remains and reminders of what used to be. He knew he should be getting back to his friends, that they would start to worry about him soon. Sapnap had grown overly protective of him those past years, and it warmed Ranboo’s heart every time he returned home to see Sapnap waiting up for him, no matter what time of day it was. Ranboo didn’t feel like he deserved Sapnap’s affection, not after he’d killed George, but the arsonist had persisted, had told him that Ranboo needed looking out for. That it wasn’t Ranboo’s fault and that George was probably happier where he was now than being under the influence of the god-awful Egg. So Ranboo had accepted it, and forced himself to move on from his guilt. 

When Ranboo looked up from his wandering feet he found himself all the way in Snowchester. The buildings were more or less intact, and there was a light snowfall coming from the sky. Ranboo wished he could enjoy it, but the little flakes left stinging sensations all over his body and he was forced to take shelter wherever he could find it. He stood there for a while, just watching the snow fall. It was pure; the only pure thing left in the world. The silence was deafening, and reminded Ranboo of all that he’d lost. 

“I didn’t think I’d ever see you back here,” a voice hissed from behind him. 

Ranboo whipped his head around to see none other than Quackity and Punz standing behind him, swords out and red eyes bright with the thrill of another possible victim. 

He kept having to remind himself that the people standing in front of him were not his friends. Not anymore.

“I didn’t want to come, but I had to see for myself.”

Quackity tilted his head, his scar on his face standing out in the glow of the white snow. “See what?”

Ranboo gestured around him. “The destruction. The corruption.”

“This place was a junkyard before the Egg came. The Egg saved this land, saved the people. It has unlocked the full potential of these nations. Can you not see that?”

“Your Egg has unlocked destruction, and despair, and will never cause anything less. I see the truth but you… you are blinded. And I wish I could help you, I really do. But I fear you’re too far gone.”

“I think you’re right.” Ranboo’s mind latched onto that voice, the voice he knew as well as his own, and wasn’t able to react as the netherite blade pushed through the front of his chest. As the face he’d once loved moved into his line of sight and smiled at his sword, like he was proud of the work he’d done. 

Tubbo’s eyes were darker than he remembered, his clothes somehow even more drained of color. Just a testament to how strong the Egg was growing. He had no doubt that it would soon spread to where his friends were, until it took control of the world. But in that moment, Ranboo didn’t care about the Egg, didn’t care about its power. He only cared for the boy standing in front of him. 

“Tubbo…”

His friend reached behind Ranboo’s back and grasped the sword handle, slowly twisting it before yanking it out. The pain was immeasurable, and Ranboo dropped to his knees as Quackity and Punz watched the life drain out of him. 

As though he were a lover, Tubbo knelt beside Ranboo and placed his hands on his back, gently lowering him to the ground. 

Ranboo felt the tears washing down his face again as he gazed up at Tubbo – the boy he had loved like a brother, the boy that had cared for him and listened to him, the one that hadn’t doubted his loyalty even when Dream said he was a traitor – and saw his friend staring back at him. 

“Oh my god,” he whispered as his eyes slowly turned back to their blue. “What did I do?” Ranboo knew there was nothing his friend could do, no way to stop the bleeding and the eventual darkness they both knew was coming. But just seeing Tubbo as himself – as his best friend – one last time was enough. He grabbed the boy’s hand and squeezed it as hard as he could. 

“It’s okay Tubbo,” he said softly. “I’ll miss you.”

Tubbo shook his head like a dog, his eyes scrunched tight, and when he opened them they were once again red. The malice had returned, and a smirk slowly spread across his face. The Egg had wanted Tubbo to feel the pain of what he’d done, see the damage he’d caused before taking him right back to the darkness of the corruption. 

Ranboo struggled to take a deep breath, his face burning from the tears and his stomach aching from the wound. He watched as Tubbo got to his feet and walked away, like he had not a care in the world. Like he hadn’t just doomed his best friend to the endless darkness of the Afterlife. 

He tried not to think of Sapnap in those moments, tried not to think about how he would be staying up all night, waiting for a boy who wouldn’t return home. 

He rested his head on the ground, waiting desperately for the pain to end when he heard soft voices in the distance, friends calling him home. 

“Ranboo, have some blue. Please, calm yourself.”

“It’s time to go Big Man. Come on, we’re playing solitaire. We’ll deal you in next round.”


End file.
